Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump Arrival At Royal Court In Saudi Arabia; Taiwan Test-Fires New Rocket System; McDonald's Plans To Hire 375,000 Workers. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 13, 2025 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:30:00]

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It's going to be really interesting to watch how they all interact together.

Another notable name that's going to be at this luncheon is Dina Powell. She was a top Trump adviser in the National Security Council during the president's first term. She is there now in her capacity as a business leader. She's also the wife of Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania.

So an interesting group there. Very heavy hitters.

And really notable the way they are looking to embrace the president and his policies, particularly in light of how the president's tariff policies have injected so much instability into the global economy, really reshaping markets. And we've seen even just yesterday after the president announced that 90-day deal with China how much -- how much influence he has on the global economy. So it's certainly something that will be discussed behind closed doors today.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, reshaping the markets and shaking up the markets to say the least, Betsy.

Betsy, give me a sense of the tick-tock here. I mean, we saw what appeared to be the royal coffee and tea ceremony. He is obviously now shaking hands with a long procession of Saudi Arabian dignitaries.

What happens after this? I mean --

KLEIN: Yeah.

SOLOMON: -- what is the schedule here?

KLEIN: So they've had the formal arrival ceremony as you mentioned. They played the national anthems. They had the coffee and tea service. They are now in the introduction of the delegations. After this they are going to go to that luncheon with CEOs, then they're going to have bilateral meetings between the president and the crown prince, obviously something we'll be watching quite closely. There's going to be an agreement signing at the Royal Court before he departs.

And then a little bit later today we will hear the president give what the White House is really billing as a keynote speech at the U.S.- Saudi Investment Forum a little bit later today. Then he's going to tour a UNESCO World Heritage site and have dinner with the crown prince.

Again, just really underscoring how the president and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have really worked to cultivate these very close personal ties together and how he has really worked to shore up relations there.

SOLOMON: Jasmine, picking up off of what Betsy said there about this -- what's being billed as a keynote address -- you know, with speeches like this, so often it's what's said, it's what not said. It's how it's said. And every word I think is really scrutinized really closely.

I'm curious what you're going to be listening for when the president gives these formal remarks.

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, FORMER PENTAGON MIDDLE EAST ADVISER: Right. I think -- like I said before, I think we're going to be looking at a speech that lays out a vision. I don't think this is just going to be a speech about a deal signed or deals signed, or really tangible kind of steps. It's going to be broader than that.

I believe and I think -- I expect the president to lay out a vision for the Middle East that is positive, that is forward-leaning. That is based on partnership and opportunity. He might mention something about the security and stability of the region.

I don't know if he would mention this, but I know he's going to be pressed by every Arab leader that he meets with about the war in Gaza and how it is just unacceptable that it continues to go on for this long. He's going to be pressed about humanitarian aid coming into Gaza. He's going to be pressed about a ceasefire and a way to move forward in order to relieve the suffering of people in Gaza and move the region forward.

He may not talk about that but there's absolutely no way that he doesn't hear about that from every Arab leader that he meets with.

But I expect the speech to be a fairly -- a fairly broad, forward- leaning one that paints a different picture of the region and paints a different picture of the traditional partnership and the traditional relationship that the U.S. has had with countries like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

And, of course, you expect to hear what's in it for the U.S. You are going to see Trump take a lot of credit for bringing investment into the U.S., for turning things around. We all know that he loves to take credit for these things and so you can definitely expect him to talk about all the great things and the great opportunities for America that this visit --

SOLOMON: Yeah.

EL-GAMAL: -- is going to bring about. SOLOMON: And Jasmine, as we've talked about for the last 30 minutes or so how this trip is being perceived both by Americans and also Arabs around the world, I'm curious if you -- if you feel like these Arab leaders feel like Trump -- feel like Trump has to say something about the situation on the ground in Gaza. I mean, the economic cooperation, the economic agreements are certainly sort of the A1 story here. But, you know, these leaders also have nations that they lead and for the Arab population I imagine front and center is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza -- the situation in Gaza. The blockage of aid in Gaza.

[05:35:10]

And so I'm curious if a success for the countries that he's visiting sort of has to require some comment from the American president about the situation on the ground in Gaza.

EL-GAMAL: That's right, Rahel. I mean, look -- I mean, we've been talking a lot about these really positive things, right? You know, investment and opportunity, and forward-thinking and leaning, and all of that stuff.

But, of course, it's impossible to ignore what's happening and still happening in Gaza. It's impossible to ignore the fact that for over two months now you haven't had any food or humanitarian aid going into Gaza. That hospitals are still being bombed. That journalists are still being killed.

I mean, this is -- this is a nightmare. I mean, nightmare is such an understatement. This is -- this is an absolute travesty that this is still happening. And I think you see that in Trump's relationship with Netanyahu where he's starting to become very frustrated at this endless conflict that Netanyahu seems to be interested in.

I think when you look at the three countries that Trump is going to visit in the region -- Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE -- each of these three countries, in their own way, have been making it very clear that what they want is a resolution of the conflict in Gaza and an end to the suffering of the people in Gaza.

So you have Qatar who is mediating between Hamas and Israel and has been mediating for over a year now.

You have Saudi Arabia who completely took normalization with Israel off the table, which was supposedly a --

SOLOMON: Yeah.

EL-GAMAL: -- would have been a crown jewel, right, for Netanyahu and for Trump. The expansion of the Abraham Accords. That is dead. There will be no normalization with Israel, the Saudis have said, unless there is a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

And so -- and then with the UAE, of course, they've helped in their own way. They've provided field hospitals to treat the wounded in Gaza. They've come out against this aid plan that's been presented that would privatize aid into Gaza and push out traditional NGOs and humanitarian organizations. They've put their foot down and said no, this is not a good idea. We do not support this.

So you are seeing a lot of pressure. I don't know how much of it will be public. I do expect the president to say something about it in the context, of course, of broader stability and security and an end to conflict in the region. But like I said, you can be sure that he's going to be hearing a lot about this from these Arab leaders.

SOLOMON: Yeah, and Jasmine, it's so interesting as we talk about the message that's being sent to others watching around the world. I mean, obviously, you're not a mind reader here but I'm curious what message you think is being sent to Israel and Netanyahu as we watch these friendly embraces and as we watch the smiles here and the agreement here.

Also happening, by the way, at the same time that the administration makes it pretty clear that it's growing frustrated with how long it's taking Ukraine and Russia to agree to some sort of ceasefire wit the frustration, at least as of late, being on the Russian side of things from the American administration.

And so I'm curious what message you think is being received or what message you think is being felt right now in Israel as they watch these pictures.

EL-GAMAL: You know, I mean, there couldn't be a stronger message that's being sent right now to Prime Minister Netanyahu. I mean, this is basically saying you're out of step. You're out of step with us. This is what we're doing. We're moving forward. Look at all of this -- all of this potential. All of this opportunity. The closeness between the U.S. and these Arab states and the fact that Netanyahu is just completely out in the cold.

And Rahel, it's not just a message from the U.S. president to Prime Minister Netanyahu. It's not just an external thing. Internally, Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing a lot of anger and frustration not -- and dissent -- not only -- I mean, you see people in the streets. Every single day you see protests -- end the war. Bring back the hostages. Now you see Israeli citizens holding up pictures of children being killed in Gaza saying enough is enough.

President Trump, ahead of this trip to the Gulf, received an open letter. There was an open letter published from former heads of the Shin Bet in Israel -- the intelligence organization. From the Mossad. From former high-level Israeli officials -- intelligence, defense, and others -- saying we want you to use the trauma of October 7 to move the region -- the whole region and all peoples in the region to move forward for a peaceful future for all of them.

[05:40:00]

These are the messages that Trump is getting, which is really bolstering him and encourage him to continue down this path of conflict resolution. And the message to Netanyahu is what you're doing is not working. We don't want it. It's not -- it's not for the moment, right?

SOLOMON: Um-hum.

EL-GAMAL: And so we'll see what that pressure does, and we'll see whether -- you know, Netanyahu famously is able to withstand seemingly any kind of domestic and international pressure. But we'll see whether this has any impact because looking from the outside in right now anybody looking at these images very much feels that Israel has been now sidelined and left out in the cold and not engaging in what seems -- what appears to be and what could be a very promising chapter for the Middle East and for U.S.-Middle East relations.

And I'll just -- a quick thing about what you said about Zelenskyy and Putin, or especially that Putin -- the disfavor now being more on Putin rather than Zelenskyy.

Again, I was talking to a friend about this yesterday who has spent a lot of time on the ground in Ukraine and involved in covering the Ukraine-Russia conflict. And they were saying to me that Zelenskyy learned very quickly after that disastrous White House summit how to deal with Trump, right? Not to challenge him. To make him feel flattered. To make him feel like he has all the good ideas. To really be very deferential to him. And to really do that with an eye towards revealing Russia to be the bad guy -- the person that's sticking their -- you know, their feet in the ground and not wanting to move forward.

As long as Zelenskyy is saying yes, I'm in, I will show up wherever you want me to, I'm ready to talk -- the more he does that the more it is revealed who is actually the intransigent party here. And that's, of course, Putin.

SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, it is really a fascinating point about how quickly it appears the president has pivoted in terms of where is frustration lies, at least according to comments coming from the administration.

Obviously, as we look at these pictures of the president with Elon Musk and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia talking and sort of exchanging what I imagine are pleasantries. We don't have audio, so we don't know, but it seems to be a very friendly conversation with all of them sort of chuckling there.

Jasmine, if I still have you, I'm just sort of curious -- sort of a bird's-eye view. You know, a few months ago before the president was inaugurated the think pieces around Saudi Arabia all sort of centered around that the big prize here was the normalizing of relations between Saudi and Israel. And now the visit is upon us. We sort of always knew it was going to happen in May. That's what the president had sort of suggested early on. The visit is upon us and it's not even on the agenda. I mean, I think that in and of itself is just sort of striking at how quickly things have changed.

And as we talk about sort of the relationship the president has with Zelenskyy and Putin and MBS versus Netanyahu it is also sort of remarkable how quickly he can pivot depending on the type of reception he is getting and the type of deliverables or movement he's getting with these other world leaders.

I'm curious how you see it.

EL-GAMAL: Well, I mean, look, I think that everything that you're seeing right now is something -- these are things that have been in the works for a really long time, like I said. You know, the advance work that was done to make this trip such a success. You know, this has been months in the making.

And one of my many criticisms of the Biden administration -- and these were my former colleagues -- is that they really looked at the region the way they wanted to see it. I saw so many missed opportunities, like the ones that we're seeing right now in front of our eyes, during the Biden administration when they had this razor-sharp view -- this laser-focus on normalization with Israel. That that was the thing that was going to happen.

You would see Brett McGurk shuttling back and forth between Riyadh and the U.S. You would see Antony Blinken talking about it. Yes, it's going to happen. Normalization is going to happen when it genuinely was never going to happen.

And it was a very frustrating -- it was very frustrating for people who live in the region or follow the region to be look -- to be -- to be -- to have any progress on the region, whether it's Saudi Arabia or other otherwise, constantly and always linked to Israel. To normalization with Israel or to something else with Israel.

This is a region that wants to be seen -- these are countries that want to be seen for themselves. For who they are. For what they can offer and for what they want, right?

SOLOMON: Um-hum.

EL-GAMAL: So that's what we're seeing now. We're seeing these countries being viewed as who they are and for what they are, separate from the Israel file. This is not about normalization with Israel so that you can get a prize for normalizing. This is about what do you, Saudi Arabia, have to offer? What do the Saudi people want? What do the Arab people want, and what do the Syrian people want? Let's talk about that.

[05:45:05]

SOLOMON: Um-hum, um-hum.

And just to take a step back here for our audience that may just be tuning in with us now at 5:45 here Eastern time, we're looking at the U.S. president -- obviously, Donald Trump -- as he embarks on this state visit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He arrived, I want to say, at about 2:45 Eastern time -- so about three hours ago. He has since been sort of treated with a royal purple carpet. He was sort of rode in on Arabian horses that sort of followed his motorcade. He didn't actually ride in on them but, of course, the Arabian horses sort of were before his motorcade.

We saw the president then shake hands after a coffee and tea ceremony there with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. We saw him sort of shake hands with a line of dignitaries there. And then we saw the same for MBS who then sort of shook hands with a long line of what looked to be American executives. I think I saw the CEO of NVIDIA there. Elon Musk is there.

There is also sort of a pretty big delegation of American cabinet officials. We've seen Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth of defense, the commerce secretary, the energy secretary. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary as well.

We have Jasmine El-Gamal with us now. Jasmine, just to sort of reset here for our audience who may not have been with us. And Jasmine, I appreciate you being with me for the last 45 minutes or so as we've sort of looked over these pictures and these live events and just tried to sort of understand what we're watching here.

Just sort of a bird's-eye view, topline picture of what we're seeing -- the significance -- again for those who may just be joining us. This is the president's first scheduled major international trip. You exclude the unexpected, unscheduled passing, of course, of the pope -- Pope Francis -- when he traveled to Rome. This was scheduled as his first international trip. This is serving largely as his first international trip.

After Saudi Arabia he will travel to the UAE and the other -- it's escaped me -- and Qatar, excuse me. The other escaped me for a moment there.

But Jasmine, again, bird's-eye view here of what we're watching, what you're expecting, and what to be watching for the next few days on this trip.

EL-GAMAL: Absolutely, and it's my pleasure to be with you.

I mean, this is really what we're watching here, as I mentioned, is a real significant moment for the U.S., for Saudi Arabia, for the Gulf, and for U.S.-Middle Eastern relations. I think the word here is economic opportunity, economic opportunity, economic opportunity for both countries.

What we're seeing is a reset of the U.S. relationship with the Arab world -- you know, looking at the Gulf right now but I expect it to have huge ripple effects around the region where we're seeing the region being viewed as in the -- through the lens of opportunity; not through the lens of purely security or extremism, or terrorism, or any of the things that were the way the U.S. looked at the region before, even during the Biden administration. This is now a reset in terms of that vision.

What you're seeing here is the Middle East -- these Arab countries, these Gulf countries saying we can offer you just as much as we want for you. This is a mutually beneficial relationship between partners. We have money we want to invest in your defense sector, in tech, in AI, and we want the same from you -- that we could help other move both of our regions, both of our countries away from conflict and problems and into economic prosperity and opportunity, and friendlier relations.

And you can see that. I mean, we were talking earlier about how relaxed, and jovial, and really interested everyone looks. And frankly, excited everyone -- how excited everyone looks to be there. They know that this is a big moment. They know that this is a big moment for both countries. They know that this is going to potentially have huge ripple effects on the entire region. And I think everyone who is there understands the significance of this moment.

SOLOMON: Yeah, and let's talk a little bit more about that, Jasmine. Because for those sort of just tuning in, maybe you missed sort of some of the pleasantries that we've seen, but you can see it sort of her with MBS sort of smiling and chuckling there.

What we have seen despite the sort of grandiosity -- the pageantry -- and it is quite a bit of pageantry. I mean, I'm just sort of looking at how he was sort of entered, how he was welcomed.

Despite that -- which can sometimes feel really formal, Jasmine, as you're watching this with some of the other nations -- this has felt more relaxed. This has felt a lot more casual. I mean, there was a moment where we were watching President Trump and MBS sort of just sitting there and they had, you know, their delegations sort of in all of the other chairs. But the two of them just looked like -- you know, I don't know -- they were old-time buddies at a baseball game or something. I mean, they just looked like they were just very, very comfortable with one another.

[05:55:10]

Talk to me a little bit about that.

EL-GAMAL: Well, I think that this has a lot to do with the personal relationship between the two. The fact that they've known each other for quite a while. The fact that their families know each other.

Trump -- obviously, President Trump is a transactional figure. And we've spoken before throughout this last hour about how his worldview is one of transactions -- transactions and legacy. Those are the two -- I view anything that the Trump administration does through one of these two lenses -- either transaction or legacy.

He wants to be very transactional in the sense that he wants to gain the most that he can gain for the United States and its interests security-wise, economically. But he also wants to leave a legacy behind and that part has been a little bit more bumpy as we've seen with the tariff wars and with the way that he keeps moving away from Europe. With the way that he's cozying up to Russia, although that seems to be changing a little bit.

So the legacy part is still a big question mark but, of course, it hasn't been that long since he's come into office the second time around. So if you park legacy for a while and if you look at just the transactional part of it, he usually operates from a standpoint of OK, what can you do with me? This is a real estate guy. This is a dealmaking guy, right? Like, he operates on transactional -- he has a transactional mind, and he wants to win.

But what I think, to your point Rahel, is what we're seeing here is that it's not just transaction. This is a friendly visit. These are two leaders who actually genuinely like each other. They have rapport. They're on the same page when it comes to a future vision. I think both of them see themselves as visionaries and they see that in each other.

And they see that they're very much -- that they're very much on the same page. They want to move the region forward away from conflict and towards economic prosperity and security. They want to make deals.

MBS has been helping Trump make deals between Russia and Ukraine. He's hosted the two countries -- the two parties. He's been instrumental in helping Syrai turn a new page with the new President Ahmed al-Sharaa. He's been instrumental in trying to push Trump towards making progress on Gaza and letting in humanitarian aid and ending the conflict.

And so Trump really feels comfortable with MBS. He doesn't feel like he has to have his guard up. That he's going to be surprised by anything. He sees this as a very friendly visit between two like- minded, self-professed visionaries who want to do big things for their countries.

SOLOMON: And for our audience just watching you are looking at the CEO of AMD, one of the chip companies that is now greeting both the president and MBS.

Jasmine El-Gamal, we're going to leave it here, but so appreciate you being with us for the hour as we've covered this live event.

We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Thank you, Jasmine.

EL-GAMAL: A pleasure.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:57:35]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon, and here are some of the stories we are watching for you today.

President Trump is now in Saudi Arabia where he received a royal welcome from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This is the first stop of his Middle East tour. He heads to Qatar and the UAE later in the week.

Taiwan not taking any chances as tensions escalate with China. On Monday, the self-governing island test-fired a new U.S.-supplied rocket system for the first time. The HIMARS, which have been widely used by Ukraine against Russia, are capable of hitting targets in China if war were to break out with Taiwan.

And McDonald's says that it plans to hire as many as 375,000 workers for the busy summer season. The fast-food giant is trying to staff up its 13,000 U.S. restaurants and open another 900 over the next two years. The hiring surge is also due to high turnover rates.

All right, turning back to our stop story this hour, President Donald Trump is in Saudi Arabia. He arrived at the Royal Court a short time ago and was greeted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. There are several events planned for the day, including bilateral luncheons and signing of agreements.

President Trump plans to reemphasize his vision for a "proud, prosperous, and successful Middle East engaged in cooperative relationships with the U.S."

His trip will include a visit to Qatar and the UAE later in the week.

We will, of course, bring you continuing coverage throughout the week on those trips.

Meantime, China's president is speaking out for the first time about that temporary trade war truce between his country and the U.S. Xi Jinping said that unity and cooperation among nations is indispensable, then issued some pointed remarks about bullying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): There are no winners in tariff wars or trade wars. Bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And his comments come a day after the U.S. and China agreed to drastically de-escalate their punishing trade war. So the U.S. will slash sky-high 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports to 30 percent and China will knock down its 125 percent levy on American goods to just 10 percent, but only for 90 days, meaning this isn't a permanent solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not looking to hurt China. China was being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest. And they were very happy to be able to something with us. And the relationship is very good. I'll speak to President Xi maybe at the end of the week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)